I'm never going to get anywhere (in my tres busy week, or in life in general!) if I let myself be carried away by such time-sucks as searching out interesting Advent calendars on the Internet.
For many years now, I took it upon myself to pick up pretty Advent calendars for the kids. Initially they were merely pictures, where you opened tabs to reveal a cute addition to a holiday scene. Perfectly satisfying and very evocative. But then one year I added the sweet element. So now the kids would open up little boxes and a chocolate or caramel would pop out. At least one set of parents shook their heads in dismay. A child does not need another source of sweet stuff around the holiday season where sugar seems to pour out of every nook and cranny from Halloween onwards. Still, they were so priceless, those little treats! And what's a grandma for, right??
Now there are five grandkids and at least four of them would enjoy an advent calendar. Well, one of the four would probably deconstruct the thing by the end of December 1st, but still, should I find something that would really tickle a child's sense of wonder? Should it be sweet or playful?
I plunge into a search of what's out there this year.
And I am somewhat shocked at how this market here has exploded. Every company appears to do an advent calendar! There are calendars for cats. There are calendars for whiskey lovers. Chocolatoholics have many choices! Playful legos abound. Cosmetics, candles, cookies, cooking utensils even (from William Sonoma)! All tucked into 24 little containers for kids and grownups to open on the days leading up to Christmas.
I did not come to any decision. There's too much out there. The beautiful winter village pictures that I used to pick up in French bookstores seem so... quaintly dated. The chocolate ones? Too sweet. The toys -- too much stuff. I am overwhelmed and the holiday season hasn't even begun.
* * *
It was cold at night. The water in the animal drinking dish underneath the crab apple froze (chickens and cats share in this so it must be filled) and so when I step outside this morning to feed the animals, I have some trepidation about plunging into planting bulbs.
(Our oldest cheeper Peach has gone through so many winters!)
Nonetheless, I give myself a stern lecture and before returning to the farmhouse, I put in 30 bulbs. I have maybe 100 more to go, but I call this progress.
As Ed and I review all that we have to do before we each take off on our successive trips this month, my guy shakes his head and says -- we are farmers. We have a list of farm projects and that list never ends and it includes a lot of planting and animal care.
I haven't been calling this place a "farmette" for nothing.
(Breakfast, where he decides to add more foods to the fruits and croissant I put out. He makes an egg salad, stuffs it into a tortilla and takes out my opened bottle of Prosecco for a few swigs. A champagne breakfast! -- he tells me. Who says Ed is predictable!)
* * *
I return to bulb planting in the early afternoon. I must. 30 more go in. The bag with bulbs grows lighter, but there are still too many in there. Uff!
* * *
In the afternoon I pick up Snowdrop. Yesterday she seemed to be fighting a bug, but I think she prevailed because today she is full of energy and enthusiasm.
It is ballet day, but getting kids to their scheduled places is becoming a talent of mine and so I am feeling a bit smug about getting her to class on time. Until she says -- Gaga, can we get there like ten minutes earlier? Say what??? Ah, she wants to have time to hang with a friend in class. I turn on my full speed ahead motor, but even so, I can only manage three minutes earlier.
* * *
And in the evening I make my daughter's chili, modified only to reflect our over abundant storehouse of farmette tomatoes. An orange rhubarb candle glows, giving that hygge feeling to the farmhouse that I love so much.
With a smile and with love...
